THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday restarted printing official ballots for the May 2025 national, local, and Bangsamoro parliamentary polls using a new strategy: dividing the job between the National Printing Office (NPO) and the poll body’s South Korean service provider, Miru Systems.
In a press conference, Comelec chief George Garcia said they are already pressed for time for the May 12 polls, the reason why they decided to include Miru Systems in printing the official ballots.
“The contract states that all the ballots will have to be printed by Miru. If that is the case, we cannot guarantee that we will finish it by April 14,” said Garcia.
“Because of this, we decided to partially terminate the contract (with Miru). We opted to divide the printing of the ballots for the 18 regions to nine each with Miru and NPO,” he added.
Under the agreement, Miru will be in charge of printing ballots for the National Capital Region, Cordillera Autonomous Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Bicol Region, along with the Local Absentee Voting for a total of 36.24 million ballots.
It will use its two HP printers to be manned by 20 personnel from Miru.
The NPO has been tasked to print ballots for Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Negros Island Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and Bangsamoro for a total of 35.88 million ballots.
The NPO has designated 64 personnel to handle its four Canon printers.
“If necessary, we can alter the assignments and the allocations of the printing. What is most important is we will complete the printing, regardless of who does it,” stressed Garcia.
He said ballot printing operations will be conducted 24 hours with two 12-hour shifts.
“Even at night, we will do the printing. This is why we have a day shift and a night shift. What is most important is we resume ballot printing as we are running out of time,” said Garcia, adding they have deployed 800 Comelec personnel at the NPO facility in Quezon City.
He said they want to complete ballot printing by April 14 to have ample time to deploy the official ballots nationwide.
“We aim to print at least 1.5 million ballots per day. If we can do more, the better,” said Garcia.
Miru Systems said it has no problem with the partial termination of its contract if it would help ensure the official ballots would be printed on time.
“We all share the same goal of ensuring a smooth election for the nation, and are confident in the NPO’s ability to support this endeavor with their successful track record in previous Philippine elections,” Miru Project Managing Director Andrew Shim said in a statement.
NO MORE DELAYS?
Garcia expressed hope there would be no further delays and hindrances in the printing of ballots, saying: “This is take two. Hopefully, with this restart of the ballot printing, it will be non-stop… We hope everyone will understand that we are already running out of time. It’s hard to recover the time we lost.”
The initial printing of ballots was stopped after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order and ordered the Comelec to include national and local aspirants, earlier ruled as nuisance candidates or had been disqualified by the poll body.
“If there will be any (new hindrances), we will proceed accordingly with the ballot printing. At this point, our commitment is we will proceed since there have been too many hindrances already,” added Garcia.
The poll body started printing ballots at the NPO last January 6.
On January 14, the poll body suspended ballot printing after the High Court issued several TROs.
The Comelec also tried to restart ballot printing last January 20, 22, and 24 but was thwarted by succeeding TROs from the SC.
The Comelec said aspirants facing pending motions and disqualification cases, including Marikina City (1st District) congressional aspirant Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro, will remain on the official list of candidates.
Garcia said until a decision becomes final, all aspirants with pending cases will remain on the official ballots.
“All candidates with pending motions, pending disqualifications, until there is no decision from the Comelec en banc, their names are included in the list,” he explained.
“Until there is no final and executory decision by the Comelec, their names will remain. And if there is no decision come Election Day, all votes for them will be considered valid votes,” Garcia added.
Last December 2024, the Comelec 1st Division ruled to deny giving due course to Teodoro’s Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for congressman of the 1st District of Marikina City.
Teodoro has filed a Motion for Reconsideration (MR) before the Commission en Banc.